Iron cages

During the visit by two of its lawyers “which coincided with the fierce storm that struck the country, the attorneys met prisoners who described a shocking picture: in the middle of the night, dozens of prisoners were transferred to iron cages built outside the IPS facility in Ramle,” according to a 17 December statement from the public defender.

“In these cages, which were exposed to the weather, they spent several hours in the freezing cold and rain, until the transport arrived to take them to court around 6am,” the statement adds.

The statement said that the practice had been going on for months, a fact “verified during other official visits and not denied by IPS.”

The public defender launched an emergency appeal to various official bodies, including the ministry of justice, “in order to prevent another night of such grave harm to humanity.”

The statement notes that some of the prisoners in the cages were “minors” – children.

The Jerusalem Postreported on 31 December that Tzipi Livni, Israel’s justice minister “immediately telephoned Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, telling him to end the practice.”

The matter was also discussed Tuesday in the Israeli parliament’s public petitions committee where, according to the Post, “the Knesset committee said that the manner of arrest and detention conditions of Palestinian children was violating Israeli law for dealing with children.”

“Alarm”

It says it has received “dozens of complaints of torture and ill treatment from children in the last 10 years” and is currently working on cases “concerning children’s complaints of torture and ill treatment at the hands of Israeli soldiers and interrogators.”

Public relations

In light of the years of systematic and unrelenting abuses, the move by Livni to end the practice of caging prisoners outdoors should be seen as no more than a cosmetic effort to improve the image of what is in effect a colonial court system in which an oppressor and occupier judges, controls and persecutes natives.

Public discussion and acknowledgment of torture and abuse of Palestinians has coexisted for decades in Israel with the unabated continuation of these practices.

Thus it has only served to boost Israel’s image as a self-critical “democracy” while changing nothing in reality.

“Going wild”

Livni herself is no friend of human rights or dignity. She has to exercise caution traveling abroad for fear of arrest on suspicion of involvement in war crimes, particularly Israel’s three-week-long assault on Gaza five years ago which killed 1,400 Palestinians, hundreds of them children.

During the massacre, as the UN-commissioned Goldstone report notes (PDF), Livni, then foreign minister, justified the attacks as necessary retaliation.

Israel, she said, “is a country that when you fire on its citizens it responds by going wild – and this is a good thing.”

There’s little reason to believe, as the new year starts, that Israel has any intention to stop “going wild” against Palestinian children.

Memories are long in the Middle East. Even losses are "celebrated" such
as at Karbala. There are others.

A very cursory examination of debate in the UN General Assembly shows
clearly that Israeli representatives have nothing but contempt for any
Palestinian voices. They say that Palestinians belong "in the corridor" and
should not "ruin our (Israeli) vote".

For " peace", Israel must be willing to concede. Israel is not willing
to negotiate anything at all. They consider themselves entitled to all of
"the land of Israel" to use their phrase.

Incidentally these views are not shared by the vast majority of Member States
at the UN. Israel and the US are today a tiny band of negative (and hateful)
votes in the General Assembly where there is no veto by "permanent
members" as in the Security Council. This is so on a variety of issues.

The World Court does not recognise applications from those who are not considered sovereign nations by the ruling nations! Australian Aboriginals with a huge petition for recognition were turned away on this basis some years ago after travelling from the Australian continent to the Hague in order to hand deliver the paper work. I cannot see the Palestinian people being treated much differently until those in power are Forced to do the right thing via public opinion and the judicious application of boycotting. Eyes on the prize, Friends... The Prize we are seeking is A Free Palestine.

The ICC Only deals with those countries that are actually recognised as such by the powers that be, and like every other unwieldy institution, is largely a paper tiger. Not helpful towards colonised countries unless forced into it by public opinion. Just saying...